Powerful Smartphone Statistics

The number of smartphone users accessing mobile content through browsers and applications now surpasses that of non-smartphone users, according to new MobiLens data fromcomScore.

In August 2010, 75.6 million mobile subscribers ages 13 and older used downloaded applications, with Smartphone users representing 60.4%, up 38.5% from 43.6% in August 2009. For the same period, 80.8 million mobile subscribers used their browser, with smartphone subscribers comprising 55.5%, up 34% from 41.4% a year ago.Making this rapid growth more impressive is the fact that smartphones still make up less than a quarter of the U.S. mobile market, according to comScore.

In August 2010, males accounted for 56% of smartphone subscribers who used downloaded applications or browsers. Females, however, are narrowing the gap with the remaining 44%, representing a 14.3% increase compared to 38.5% in the corresponding August 2009 period.
Among the various age segments, 13-to-17-year-olds are exhibiting the strongest growth in using downloaded apps or browsers, up 25.4% from 5.5% to 6.9% of the audience. Persons ages 18-24 are also accelerating adopters of app/browser usage, representing 16.7 percent of the audience, a 3.7% increase from 16.1% a year ago.

Weather, maps and social networking represented the top content categories accessed through downloaded applications in August 2010, used by more than one-third of US smartphone subscribers. Social networking applications were used by 30%, while search and news applications were used by 18%.Search was the most popular category accessed through browsers, reaching 54% of the smartphone audience. Forty-three percent of smartphone subscribers accessed social networking sites via browser, followed by news (40%), weather (36%) and sports information (32%).